Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Warns Against Taking Them at Their Word

Over the weekend, we discussed the troubling disappearance and murder of Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Mr. Khashoggi, an open critic of the Saudi Arabian royal family and their policies was in exile in the United States.

On September 28, he returned to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in order to retrieve necessary paperwork regarding his divorce from his first wife, since he was engaged to be married again.

They instructed him to return at a later date, and promised that he would be safe, upon his return.

Security cameras on the outside show Mr. Khashoggi entering the consulate on October 2, 2018 for his 1:30 pm appointment, but he never came out.

In the meantime, his fiancée was left outside with two cell phones, with instructions to contact an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the event he didn’t come back. She waited for over 10 hours for his return, before going for help.

Another odd details about his disappearance is that the Turkish authorities now say he hit the record function on his Apple watch before entering the consulate and it managed to record around 2 hours of his interrogation, torture, and eventual murder, then uploaded that to the Cloud.

The Turkish government also insists that their flight records show 15 Saudi agents, one of them a colonel with Saudi intelligence, arrived in Istanbul that day (different flights), and then left, hours later.

It all seems quite sordid, and a lot of speculation has surrounded how President Trump would respond to the event, given he has so many personal business ties with the Saudi government.

Indeed, the president has vowed “severe punishment,” if it was discovered Saudi Arabia was responsible for the death of Khashoggi.

On Monday, however, Trump floated the notion that “rogue killers” may have been responsible for Khashoggi’s death.

You know, because rogue killers routinely hang out in the halls of the Saudi consulate.

“Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened ‘to our Saudi Arabian citizen,'” Trump tweeted on Monday.

“He said that they are working closely with Turkey to find answer. I am immediately sending our Secretary of State to meet with King!”

This, of course, has sent Democrats into a frenzy, pointing out that President Trump is now the PR agent for the Saudi Arabian government.

I suppose until those alleged recordings surface or we have more substantial evidence, so much of it will be left to speculation.

With all that said, the former United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, is cautioning the president against so readily taking the Saudi government’s word on the matter.

“Let’s remember, this is the same King Salman who told me after 9/11 that the 9/11 attacks were an Israeli plot,” Jordan said. “He said that firmly. Did I believe that? Of course not. I don’t think you can go in with wide-eyed acceptance of anything some of these world leaders say.”

And we can’t forget the relationship between Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Jordan further pointed out that it was highly possible that if this was a Saudi operation, the king could have been in the dark about it, while the crown prince orchestrated it.

“But nonetheless, I think we’ve got to have a thorough investigation,” he said.

This is true. We don’t want to accuse them, unjustly, but the idea that we continue to blindly call them “allies” after all we know is just foolhardy.

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